Android users… The. Wait. Is. Over! Groundspeak’s Official Geocaching App is now available in the Android Market. Enjoy the only direct access to Geocaching.com’s database of geocaches. First version available now, updates to follow.

_________________Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Too late. Most Droid users are already using c:geo. Someone needs to inform Groundspeak that $10 for an app is way too much.

Accept from what I've read and been told c:geo violates the TOU policy that GroundSpeak has. I'm guessing that now that GC has their own app, they will force c:geo to cease and desist or force c:geo to pony up lots o'cachecash.

But I don't have an Android phone, that's just based on what I've read about c:geo and how it get's it's data.

Not to mention the iPhone app is $10 and I think it's pretty reasonable. Developers should be paid for their work. Just my opinion though on that._________________Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

I think the Droid users would be happier if there was a free trial version for the new app, so we could try it out. What the Groundspeak people should've done is hired the guy that created c:geo and let him create the "official" Android app. From what I can tell, the official app mirrors what c:geo already does.

I think what it comes down to is iphone users are used to paying $ for their apps...Droid users aren't.

I was lucky enough to beta test the Groundspeak Android app and will say in the beginning it had a lot to be desired but the product they have now works very well. I have used it a lot and have been happy with how they improved it. I would not say that it mirrors what c:geo does it is more comparable to the iPhone app.

I think the Droid users would be happier if there was a free trial version for the new app, so we could try it out. What the Groundspeak people should've done is hired the guy that created c:geo and let him create the "official" Android app. From what I can tell, the official app mirrors what c:geo already does.

I think what it comes down to is iphone users are used to paying $ for their apps...Droid users aren't.

I don't think that's true at all. there are many paid and free apps for both platforms. In this case, I personally think it's worth the money.

I work for a software company and have written software in the past. Developers need to be paid for their work or they will stop working on things. I think the one time $10 price tag is well worth the money. I can assure you that now that GC has an official app they will go after the other rogue apps. You will have to pay going forward. You have to pay to play as it were. _________________Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Tried it out over the weekend and it worked great. It was usually a few feet different than my GPSr, and a bit slower to update, but all in all it got me into striking distance (15-20 feet of the cache) and allowed me to log the find right from the phone.

As to some previous comments; I agree that since they offer a free trial version for the iPhone, it would have been nice to try it out on the Droid before buying it; but there is one big difference between Android and iPhone when it comes to paid apps...on the Android market, you can return any paid app within 24 hours for a refund; you can't do that with the iPhone...so that really does work as a trial period...if you don't like it, request a refund and remove the app.

I work for a software company and have written software in the past. Developers need to be paid for their work or they will stop working on things. I think the one time $10 price tag is well worth the money. I can assure you that now that GC has an official app they will go after the other rogue apps. You will have to pay going forward. You have to pay to play as it were.

While I agree with you in principle. There is a big difference between a reputable software development house that is either contracted to write code or is in the business. But when it comes to the Apps market, every Tom, Dick and Harry can write some code and post it out there. The Droid market just like the iPhone market is flooded with bad and even worse software. Neither the Android Market or iTunes tests and certifies the software. So you don't know what is real and what is a scam.

I am more willing to download and test a free lite version of an app and if I like it I will then spend the money. But I won't buy competing apps for $ just to test them out and see if they work.

As for the GC.com app for Droid. I'm going to wait a few more months and see where it goes before I pay for it. So far, I'm still happy doing it old school._________________Airborne All the Way!

I bought it right away. It doesn't look too bad to me. I wish it had a "radar" style navigation view. I'm used to using Geocache Navigator on my old Noka N95, and it had a option to show a radar-scope view that had a short bread-crumb trail that gave you an idea of the direction you were moving. It helped to overcome the phone's gps accuracy quite a bit.

I don't find $10 for this application to be a big deal. They are likely to offer quite a few updates and improvements. Having live access to the geocache descriptions and logs is so worth it to e.

Unfortunately, my phone has a GPS issue (Samsung Vibrant); hopefully there will be a fix forthcoming soon. For now, I pair the accuracy of my Etrex Vista HCx with the cache information from my phone.